Keyword: damascus

A number of recent articles make the case that the administration’s Syria policy is incoherent. Elliott Abrams says it’s worse than that: The White House’s position on Syria is duplicitous. Abrams looks at a series of recent interviews Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has given to the press about Syria, and identifies what appear to be the administration’s three reasons for not supporting the Syrian opposition. First is the administration’s concern that, according to Clinton, al Qaeda may have infiltrated the opposition. Second, she contends that arming the opposition is futile because given the regime’s firepower there is no way...

AMMAN (Reuters) - Street battles raged on the doorstep of the Syrian capital on Monday, as President Bashar al-Assad's troops sought to consolidate their grip on suburbs rebel fighters had taken only a few miles from the centre of Assad's power. Activists and residents said Syrian troops now had control of Hamouriyeh, one of a cluster of districts where they have used armored vehicles and artillery to beat back rebels who came as close as eight km (five miles) to Damascus. An activist said the Free Syrian Army - a force of military defectors with links to Syria's divided political...

Syria rebels gain foothold in Damascus By Jeremy Bowen BBC Middle East editor, Damascus When the BBC team approached a checkpoint set up by the rebel Free Syria Army in the suburbs of Damascus, masked men with Kalashnikov assault rifles and hand grenades moved towards us - a few of them offering dates and biscuits. It is customary to give mourners something sweet, and a funeral was about to start that they said they were protecting. I had no idea before I saw them with my own eyes that the Free Syria Army was so active in and around Damascus....

The burden against Damascus. “ Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city, And it will be a ruinous heap. (Isaiah 17::1)Like much of the Arab world, Syria is a nation in agony. The passions incited by the “Arab Spring” have been inflamed in Syria, as they have in the rest of the middle east. No one can fault the people of the region for longing to throw off the suffocating tyrannies that have held absolute rule over them for so long. Through a ruthless willingness to crush all dissent, the late Hafez Assad and his son Bashir, have made...

DAMASCUS — Is this your first visit to Syria, the passport control man asks me. No, I tell him, I came here once before over a decade ago. He stamps my passport. I had been very lucky to get a Syrian visa this time. The travel advice was not to visit. The Syrian regime is very wary of foreigners, fearing that journalists and spies are inflaming the situation further. I collect my bag and walk through customs, passing a poster, of modest size, of President Bashar al-Assad with the words in Arabic proclaiming: "Leader of the youth, hope of the...

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian forces killed at least 32 civilians on Friday, including 23 in the capital Damascus, in an intensifying crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad, activists said. It was the highest death toll in the central neighborhoods of Damascus since the uprising erupted four months ago in the southern Hauran Plain near Syria's border with Jordan.

Cell seeks to avenge assassination of Imad Mughniyeh; attack could target Israelis in immediate future, security sources warn; Talal Hamia named as Hezbollah commander charged with carrying out strike. Hezbollah is planning a terrorist attack against Israelis abroad within days, security sources warned on Thursday night. The warning of the imminent attack did not mention specific locations. It was issued as many Israelis were abroad for the weeklong Pessah holiday. Security is being stepped up at potential Jewish and Israeli targets overseas, the sources said. They named Hezbollah operative Talal Hamia as the commander of a small but well-organized overseas...

Part of the regime’s survival strategy is to keep out foreign journalists. Agency reporters have been expelled, bloggers detained. Snippets of information leak out through furtive phone calls, Facebook and Twitter, revealing a partial picture of a regime trying to repress dissent with increasing desperation. Last week, however, I spent five days in Damascus and the south of the country where the protests began, talking to political activists, students and ordinary families. Some were too scared to discuss politics; others could not stop. On the surface, everything was normal. The sun shone, tourists trod the ancient streets of Damascus and...

DAMASCUS, Syria – Troops opened fire on protesters in cities across Syria and pro- and anti-government crowds clashed in the capital's historic old city as one of the Mideast's most repressive regimes sought to put down demonstrations that exploded nationwide Friday demanding reform.

Police in Hamburg shut down the notorious al-Quds mosque, renamed the Taiba mosque in 2008, led by German-Syrian national and voluntary imam Mamoun Darkazanli. Darkazanli (a.k.a. Abu Ilyas al-Suri) has been a suspected al-Qaeda operative, primarily as a financier and logistician, in the European Union for close to two decades. Long active in al-Qaeda circles, Darkazanli first surfaced on the radar of Western intelligence agencies when he purportedly helped procure a cargo ship named “Jennifer” for Osama bin Laden as early as 1993 (Hamburger Abendblatt, October 16, 2004). Germany’s Bundeskriminalamt (BKA- Federal Criminal Police Office) admitted that it had been...

Iran's secret pipeline into the U.S. J.J. Green, wtop.com WASHINGTON - Iran Air 744 is a bimonthly flight that originates in Tehran and flies directly to Caracas with periodic stops in Beirut and Damascus. The maiden flight was Feb. 2, 2007. The mere existence of the flight was a significant concern for U.S. intelligence officials, but now a broader concern is who and what are aboard the flights. "If you [a member of the public] tried to book yourself a seat on this flight and it doesn't matter whether it's a week before, a month before, six months before --...

Syria has sought to overcome U.S. sanctions on the regime of President Bashar Assad and so, apparently, has the Obama administration. The State Department said it has detected Syrian efforts to bypass U.S. sanctions imposed on Damascus over the last decade. In a report, the department's inspector-general said the U.S. embassy foiled several of these Syrian attempts. "The United States also was able to thwart several Syrian attempts to evade sanctions, thanks to timely embassy warnings," the report, titled "Report of Inspection," said. But the State Department also said U.S. enforcement of sanctions on Syria has been muddled under the...

The Return of Bin Laden’s Daughter 20/03/2010 By Tariq Alhomayed Finally, Iman Bin Laden is back with her mother who accompanied her daughter to Damascus after many difficult years spent in Iran where Iman lived in a residential compound in Tehran under tight security until she was able to escape and seek refuge in the Saudi embassy in Tehran in search of help. A new life has been ordained for Iman.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Wednesday reiterated his view that Jerusalem must enter peace talks with Damascus in the near future, prefacing his message with a warning to Syria not to make a military gamble against Israel. “I’ve heard some statements about Syria. I do not recommend to any neighboring country, including Syria, to put us to the test. Having said that, I do believe a genuine negotiation with Syria is one of Israel interests. I keep on calling on [Syrian President Bashar] Assad – we all understand what’s on the table and the time is now,” Barak said during...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama took a major step toward improving strained ties with Syria on Tuesday, announcing his intention to reappoint a U.S. ambassador to Damascus after a five-year absence. The White House said Obama had nominated career diplomat Robert Ford to the post. The nomination must still be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The United States withdrew its ambassador from Damascus in 2005 after the assassination in Beirut of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Syria's foes in Lebanon accused Damascus of involvement, a charge Syria denied.

•The rapprochement between Ankara and Damascus is only the culmination of the increasingly problematic policies pursued by the Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP). •Two factors in particular seem to have led to Turkey's shift away from Israel and toward Syria. First, Turkey no longer needed Israeli assistance to pressure the Syrian government to change its policy of providing safe-haven to the terrorist Kurdish Worker's Organization (PKK). Second, in the past seven years, once secular Turkish politics have undergone a profound Islamist transformation. •At the same time, the dynamic between the Turkish military and the state's civilian leadership has changed....

Syria is training Hizbullah to operate a Soviet-origin air defense system according to regional news reports. The Kuwaiti daily Al Rai reported that Syria provided Hizbullah with SA-2 surface-to-air missile systems for operations against Israel. On Jan. 17, the Kuwaiti newspaper, quoting a senior U.S. official, said Israel has warned Syria not to grant the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah access to the SA-2. "War will erupt in the forseeable future between Lebanon and Israel unless Syria agrees to additional red lines," the U.S. official told Al Rai, a newspaper believed used by Israel and the United States to relay messages to the...

An American source says that Syria allowed Hezbollah operatives to train within its territory in the use of advanced SA2 anti-aircraft missile batteries, the Kuwaiti daily Al Rai reported Sunday. In an interview, the senior U.S. official warned that if Syria supplies Hezbollah with this type of missile, Israel will bomb Damascus and a war will likely ensue. According to the official, Israel has warned Syria not to allow the transfer of the SA2 missiles into the hands of Hezbollah, and views the transfer of such missiles as the crossing of a red line.

If Israel were to attack Hizbullah in Lebanon, Syria would respond and not sit idly by, the Katari Al Watan newspaper quoted Syrian sources as saying in a report published Wednesday. The sources reportedly added that Damascus considered any threat to Lebanon's security and stability as a threat to Syria's security. The paper reported that Damascus was worriedly taking notice of "Israeli deployment and maneuvers along the northern border," and that Syrian leadership assessed Israel was planning a military operation in Lebanon in May. US officials have notified the Lebanese government that if it does not manage to unarm Hizbullah,...

For the last five years, satellite photos have shown continuing constructing of an underground bunker complex north of Damascus, Syria, This is believed to be the control center for the national air defense system. Progress has been slow because Syria is broke and unable to pay for the new missile systems that that the people in this underground complex would control. Earlier this year, Russia suspended its program to upgrade Syria's MiG-31 fighters. In 2007, Russia and Syria signed an agreement by which Russia would provide the country with seven MiG-31 aircraft, as well as equipment and services to upgrade...

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 Damascus the World's Most Dangerous Destination! By Bill Salus According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, tourism in Israel has steadily declined in 2009 in comparison to 2008. There appears to be a developing concern among would be “holy land” travelers that a major Mideast war involving Israel, Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas, and others is inevitable and soon to happen. In a semi-related area, Israel’s concerns are further fueled by the genuine possibility that immigration into Israel will come to a complete halt the minute Iran possesses its own nuclear weapon. Ephraim Sneh, the former...

A great explosion is about to come , Destroying things not of my kingdom , Prophecies told about to unfold , Things new wiping out the old , The storehouses of God's lightning released , Disturbing things now resting in peace , Ancient walls suddenly cut down , Nothing left but burnt glass on the ground , As paper mache burnt and blown away , A prophecy of the past happening in one day , A blink of the eye and nothing left to see , Yet all the nations witnessing God's majesty , A turning point in a war...

Special Dispatch - No. 2499 August 21, 2009 No. 2499 In March 2009, Hamas held a festival at the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, Syria to mark "the victory of the 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades," its military wing, in the "Al-Furqan War," [1] i.e., the 2008-9 war with Israel in Gaza. The festival included a photo exhibit and the screening of films showing the Al-Qassam Brigades at their training camps; distribution of videos about the Brigades' operations during the war; and an evening poetry program featuring poets and children's choirs from across the Arab world. There were also speeches by...

"More undeclared uranium discovered in Syria" SNIPPET: "International Atomic Energy Agency finds traces of processed uranium at second site in Syria, leading to fears of covert nuclear activity" Reuters Published: 06.05.09, 21:56 / Israel News SNIPPET: "The UN nuclear watchdog has discovered traces of processed uranium at a second site in Syria, the agency said on Friday, heightening concern about possible undeclared atomic activity in the Arab state. The International Atomic Energy Agency has been examining U.S. intelligence reports that Syria almost built a North Korean-designed nuclear reactor meant to yield weapons-grade plutonium before Israel bombed it to rubble in...

"MI5 linked to arrest of Britons in Syria Spy agency investigated woman accused by Damascus of sending UK money to al-Qaida offshoot, says Labour peer" SNIPPET: "Relatives of Maryam Kallis and Yasser Ahmed say they have not been told the reasons for their arrests two months ago and are concerned they may be suffering severe mistreatment. The Syrian embassy in London has alleged that Kallis received funds from an individual "who resides in the UK" and conveyed them to "a terrorist network related to al-Qaida". The assertion suggests that the individual would have been investigated by MI5." SNIPPET: "Kallis, 36,...

On Monday night, something remarkable is going to take place in the capital of Syria. More than 1,100 senior Syrian government officials, journalists, business leaders and religious leaders — Muslim, Catholic and evangelical Christian — will attend the gala premiere of a major motion picture entitled Damascus, written, produced and directed by entirely Arab Christians. The film, part documentary and part narrative drama, tells the story of how Saul of Tarsus — one of the first prominent persecutors of Christ-followers in the Holy Land — himself became a follower of Jesus during a miraculous encounter with Jesus on the road...

As the IDF operation in the Gaza Strip entered its 10th day, Hamas has begun sending conflicting messages regarding its intentions. These contradictory messages, Palestinian political analysts said, reflected the state of confusion in Hamas and raised questions as to who was calling the shots in the Gaza Strip. While some Hamas leaders have been openly signaling their readiness to accept a new cease-fire, others are still calling for pursuing the fight against Israel "until victory." What is clear is that Hamas is now desperate for a lull in the fighting. But it is also eager to score some kind...

INDIANAPOLIS -- A Greenfield man has been indicted on accusations he tried to sell the names of U.S. intelligence agents to Iraq before the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. Authorities: Man Was In Iraq In '02 Shaaban Hafiz Ahmad Ali Shaaban, a 52-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, was arrested Thursday after an investigation of more than a year by the FBI and other agencies, U.S. Attorney Susan W. Brooks said. Shaaban, also known as Shaaban Shaaban Hafed and Joe H. Brown, is suspected of going to Iraq in 2002 and making a deal to sell the names. He isn't accused...

Hamas strongman Mahmoud Zahar on Friday said he hoped that Barack Obama's presidential election victory would open a new page in relations between the U.S. and the Muslim world. However, Zahar said he does not expect immediate change in U.S policy toward Hamas. The Bush administration is boycotting the Palestinian Islamist group, along with most of the international community.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - U.S. military helicopters launched an extremely rare attack Sunday on Syrian territory close to the border with Iraq, killing eight people in a strike the government in Damascus condemned as "serious aggression." A U.S. military official said the raid by special forces targeted the foreign fighter network that travels through Syria into Iraq. The Americans have been unable to shut the network down in the area because Syria was out of the military's reach. "We are taking matters into our own hands," the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the political...

Following last year’s Israeli bombing of a suspected Syrian nuclear facility, Damascus has reportedly restarted its nuclear weapons program, but is now following the Iranian model of housing the program at numerous different locations. London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat cited unnamed Israeli military sources as saying that the North Koreans and Iranians are still involved in the Syrian nuclear program, which has accelerated in recent months.

At least 17 people been killed by a suspected car bomb in the Syrian capital Damascus, say local media reports. ... Syria's Dunia television said the explosion had targeted a security forces installation.

Fears that Russia might sell advanced weaponry to Syria kicked up a mini-storm of concern in Israel on Thursday. Syrian President Bashar Assad, in Russia for talks with President Dmitry Medvedev, has been campaigning to acquire weapons systems that include long-range surface-to-surface missiles, according to Russian media reports. The news of Assad's reported ambitions prompted immediate hand-wringing among Israeli officials and analysts. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel was "analyzing the ramifications" of Assad's visit.

The Marcellus Shale play is the latest huge thing in natural gas, considered by some to be a "super giant" gas field. Read more here http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/246893563.shtml The edge of the Marcellus Shale in Northeast PA and NY is about 100 miles from NYC, which means the gas needs only a very short trip by pipeline to the major metropolitan centers. Natural gas is the cleanest of the fossil fuels and also is a source for hydrogen for hydrogen powered vehicles. So here are a bunch of "concerned citizens" planning to oppose it with all their might. "The Damascus group has...

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal says his militant Islamic group will not recognize Israel. Earlier, former President Jimmy Carter said that Hamas is prepared to accept the Jewish state's right to "live as a neighbor next door in peace."

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal made a speech in favor of the “Palestinian reproductive machine” at his daughter Fatima’s wedding over the weekend. The “machine” is constantly active, Mashaal said. He told his daughter and son-in-law that their children would one day live in the “48 territories,” that is, within Israel’s 1948 borders. Mashaal took time from his speech to thank Syria for allowing him, Islamic Jihad head Ramadan Shallah, and other senior terrorists to live in Damascus. “We realize the pressures on Syria for housing Mashaal and Shallah,” he said. Shallah attended the wedding, as did PFLP head Mahir at-Tahir,...

Damascus is preparing for a large-scale Israeli attack on Syria and Hizbullah, London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported Wednesday. According to the report, the Syrian army has been maneuvering its forces and drafting some of its reserve forces in preparation for such a contingency. Damascus has also raised the alert level along its borders, and has placed three armored divisions, nine infantry brigades and special forces near its border with Lebanon's Bekaa valley, fearing an Israeli infiltration there. The report claimed that this would be a strategic spot for Israeli ground forces to strike, as it is both a Hizbullah stronghold and...

Cheney hits out at Iran, Syria as he wraps up Mideast peace push Mar 24, 2008 JERUSALEM (AFP) - US Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday hit out at Iran and Syria as he wrapped up a Middle East peace push, saying they were undermining the renewed but faltering Israeli-Palestinian talks. Iran and Syria "are doing everything they can to torpedo the peace process," Cheney told reporters in Jerusalem as he wrapped up a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories before heading to Turkey. During his talks with Israeli and Palestinian leadership, "I reaffirmed the president's commitment to help...

Syrian security forces have arrested several Palestinians suspects in connection with the assassination of Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh, a Lebanese security source told Reuters on Friday. The source added that Hizbullah had appointed a successor to Mughniyeh within hours of his death in a car bomb blast in the Syrian capital.

DAMASCUS, Syria - President Bashar Assad boasts that Damascus is "the capital of resistance," a claim borne out by the presence here of Hamas leaders and a host of other radical Palestinian groups. But the killing of Imad Mughniyeh, one of America's most-wanted fugitives, in the Syrian capital shows how costly the regime's traditional hospitality toward Arab hard-liners can be. Mughniyeh's presence on Syrian soil was a deep embarrassment to Damascus, fueling U.S. accusations that the country allows extremists of many stripes — Palestinian militants, Hezbollah operatives and Iraqi insurgents — to operate freely. And the fact that someone was...

Imad Mughniyeh was killed in Damascus. I'm wondering whether Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) or Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) still believe that their private consultations with Syrian President Bashar al-Asad were successful, especially given that the Syrian president had, apparently, continued to give one of the world's most notorious terrorists free passage and haven inside Syria. 02/13 11:16 AM

Reservist Military Intelligence officers tell Ynet of Imad Mugniyah's prowess as terrorist mastermind. Former Mossad chief Danny Yatom: One of most dangerous terrorists ever. "Hizbullah lost its most important operative in the organization in recent years," a reservist Military Intelligence officer told Ynet on Wednesday in reference to the killing of senior Hizbullah military commander Imad Mugniyah in an explosion in Damascus. "He was an expert in carrying out terrorist attacks and at the same time, he was an expert in maintaining a low profile and knowing, for 20 years, how to evade the many that tried to get him,"...

Scratch one terrorist from the FBI's Most Wanted list. An explosion killed Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyeh, one of the planners of the 1983 bombings in Beirut that killed 241 Marines and another 63 people at our embassy in Lebanon. He also took part in the 1985 TWA hijacking that resulted in the beating death of Navy diver Robert Stethem: A senior Hezbollah commander implicated in some of the most high-profile international terrorist attacks of the last 25 years has died in an explosion in Syria, Hezbollah TV said Wednesday. Imad Mughniyeh was suspected by Western intelligence agencies in the 1983...

A foreign policy adviser to Senator Obama is scheduled to arrive in Syria today as the leader of a RAND Corp. delegation. Zbigniew Brzezinski will travel to Damascus for meetings as part of a trip Syria's official Cham News agency described as an "important sign that the end of official dialogue between Washington and Damascus has not prevented dialogue with important American intellectuals and politicians."

President al-Assad Launches official opening of festivity of Damascus, capital of Arab culture for 2008 Saturday, January 19, 2008 - 09:50 PM - Syrian news agency www.sana.sy/eng/21/2008/01/19/157105.htm ...Today, Damascus not only represents the Arab Capital of Culture, but the Arab Capital of dignity. It provides us with a strong sense of Arab and human dignity, an infinite sense of national pride. It is the capital of resistance, as resistance is an original aspect of our Arab culture. It is the culture of freedom and the defense of freedom. The culture of resistance is creativity; our freedom is a prerequisite for...

IN a small flat in Damascus, a young man in jeans and T-shirt draws frequently on a Gauloises cigarette as he describes how he dressed his brother in a suicide belt and watched him blow up some American soldiers at a drinks stall in Iraq. The young man calls himself Ahmed. He is 23 and he has a degree in chemistry. He knows all about explosives. Last year, he says coolly, he took 15kg of TNT, packed it into pouches with some nails and strapped the bomb to his 19-year-old brother’s waist. There was never any doubt that it would...

A stunning report published by Jane's Defense Weekly confirms rumors of a July explosion at a Syrian military base at al-Safir, near Aleppo, in which reportedly "dozens" of Iranian engineers were killed along with their Syrian counterparts. Syria had originally dismissed reports of the explosion by saying the blast was generated by the desert heat causing the accidental detonation of a stockpile of explosives. Jane's reported that the explosion was actually triggered while the engineers were fitting a chemical warhead onto a Scud-C missile. The explosion and fire released containers of the deadly nerve agents VX and sarin gas, as...

The nuclear Iranian crisis forces the world "to prepare for the worst" which "is war," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Sunday evening, while emphasizing that negotiations should still be the preferred course of action. Kouchner, quoted by French daily Le Figaro, added that "Iran does whatever it pleases in Iraq ... one cannot find in the entire world a crisis greater than this one."

WASHINGTON -- Senator Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, has been recruiting support for legislation that would sanction Damascus International Airport. Lieberman said the airport has become the major conduit for Al Qaida fighters to Iraq as well as Iranian weapons shipments to Lebanon. He based his assertion on briefings from the U.S. military. On Thursday, the Bush administration released an unclassified version of a national intelligence estimate that supported Lieberman's allegations against Syria. But the report said Damascus, despite its increase in support for militias in Iraq, has cracked down on Al Qaida in wake of a determination that...